All is set for the 58th staging of the annual Hanover Charities signature event, the Sugar Cane Ball, which will be held this year on Valentine's Day, Saturday, February 14, at Round Hill Hotel in Hanover.

Sugar Cane Ball, which raises funds for Hanover Charities, will see international and local guests partying for a good cause.

At last year's event, Hanover Charities broke its own record and raised more than US$230,000 on the single night. In the past 10 years alone, nearly US$3,000,000 has been donated from this single evening event, directly towards funding the many projects of Hanover Charities.

"The majority of our funds are raised from the silent auction items for the ball, which are always unique and one-off, gathered by the very generous homeowners of Round Hill and Tryall. Last year, they outdid themselves and promise to do so again for Valentine's", chairperson of Hanover Charities and this year's co-chair for the Sugar Cane Ball, Katrin Casserly said.

Casserly's counterpart, Tryall Club's Jennifer Flanagan, who also co-chairs this year's Sugar Cane Ball, said she was ecstatic about the support at last year's event and is looking forward to similar successes this year.

"We were beyond thrilled with the generosity of the partygoers last year. Our dedicated committee members and their neighbours at Round Hill and Tryall want to see our many projects continue and grow, so we are really looking forward to seeing what they have for us this year," she said.

main prize

The Sugar Cane Ball raffle will have as its main prize, a US$5000 spending spree at Ralph Lauren. A week-long Gallery of West Indian Art Exhibition is also another fundraiser, which complements the ball.

Education is a key focus for Hanover Charities, and there are several education-based schemes supported by the ball's funds. In 2014, a total of 72 academic scholarships were awarded in the fields of medicine, law, education, social work and communications. Other projects supported by Hanover Charities include a soup kitchen, which feeds more than 700 people each week, and an annual health fair and many other permanent projects.